Airport woes - stupidity..

[BlindSquirrel]

Here's a no-sh*t story that I won't soon forget...

While packing for a 1 week trip to Las Vegas, The Grand Canyon, and a bunch of the southern Utah national parks, I came to the conclusion that I needed a suitcase plus a good sized backpack. My hunting backpack was just the right size.

So I emptied the backpack and started loading it with important stuff like a camera, gps, binoculars, water bottle, a few snacks, wind breaker, etc. I wanted to carry it on so I didn't put in my Leatherman tool or any other no-no's.

We got through PDX fine, and ended up having an awesome trip -- the scenery was spectacular.

So, on the way home, same check-in drill in the Vegas airport -- except this time, my backpack was singled out for inspection after going through the detector. "Sir, is this your bag?" they said. Thoughts starting racing through my mind -- "I didn't leave my Leatherman tool in there? No way - not this trip anyway. What about my long lost Micra?". They start looking in a little pocket designed for a AA mag-lite. "Hmm, what did I leave in there?". The lady gets her little fingers into the pocket and pulls out a 7 mm Mag cartridge! :shocked: My heart dropped and visions of missing my flight and a full body cavity search come to mind. Suddenly Barry Switzer doesn't look so stupid. My wife is thinking [img]graemlins/stupid.gif[/img]

The inspector looks at me with disguist and says "What were you planning on doing with this?". Trying to sound as sheepish as possible, I told her it was my hunting backpack (hence the camo), and that during hunting season I would hope to use it on a deer or elk. Apparently, I didn't do a good enough job emptying it beforehand!

Luckily, all I got was a thorough body wanding (with clothes on), and of course they confiscated my Federal Premium NP. I think if my complexion was a little darker I would not have gotten the same treatment.

I asked how I could have gotten through PDX with the cartridge in the first place, and they said that they had just been upgraded with more sensitive detectors, and PDX probably hasn't upgraded yet.

Anyway, the moral of the story - clean out your packs/bags/suitcases thoroughly before packing for the airport carry-on, Duh!

[TheRogue]

Bet you were wondering what "Bubba" in the federal pen was going to do to you!! :grin: :grin: :grin:

You were lucky, had it happened in Oct/Nov, you'd probably still be under the bright lights!!

[Beaver93]

Whew! My wife would have been scared to death if that happened to us on a trip.

[Bait O' Eggs]

My recent trip to Alaska I made it thru the PDX airport OK, then on the way home in Anchorage I went outside the terminal area and had to get back thru the security section. For some reason I set off the walk thru metal detector, so off to the side area for a little wanding. Well they couldnt get the wand to beep. They all but do an internal wand, when they bring over a couple other inspectors who start badgering me with questions about why I set the walk thru machine off, but the wands wouldnt pick up the metal that the walk thru machine found. I got my shoes off and they are checking them and everything else.

I am dumbfounded and guess it is the eyelets on my shoes. They run the shoes thru the x-ray machine, in the meantime they take my bag and x-ray it at a couple more angles and then when they were not happy they drag me off to another corner and take some cloths and wipe down my hands, my bag zippers, bag handles and stick it in a microwave type machine which was looking for explosive residue I was informed. :shocked: :shocked:

Finally they let me go, but it was 20 minutes of sweating bullets.

I am glad they didnt find a bullet in my bag, I might still be there.